diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index a82e735..e7e1fa4
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -59,6 +59,14 @@ You can force the creation of an array by adding the `force-array` parameter to
 
 The `force-array` attribute will not be copied to the output JSON .
 
+You can force the creation of a string by adding the `force-string` parameter to your XML. So instead of creating a number, the following example will create a string.
+
+    <fruitId json:force-string="true" xmlns:json="http://json.org/">123</>
+    
+    {fruitId: '123'}
+
+The `force-string` attribute will not be copied to the output JSON .
+
 ### Output formats
 
 There are four output formats in XSLTJSON, which one to use depends on your target application. If you want the most compact JSON, use the basic output. If you want to transform XML to JSON and JSON back to XML, use the [BadgerFish](http://badgerfish.ning.com/) output. If you want something in between, you could use the RabbitFish output; which is similar to the basic version, but does distinguish between elements and attributes. If you're dealing with a lot of data centric XML, you could use the highly structured Rayfish output. All four output formats ignore XML namespaces unless the `use-namespaces` parameter is set to `true()`, in which case namespaces are created according to the BadgerFish convention.
diff --git a/conf/xml-to-json.xsl b/conf/xml-to-json.xsl
old mode 100755
new mode 100644
index cd17aed..cf88a5e
--- a/conf/xml-to-json.xsl
+++ b/conf/xml-to-json.xsl
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
-  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
-  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
-  xmlns:json="http://json.org/">
+                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+                xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
+                xmlns:json="http://json.org/">
 
   <xsl:output indent="no" omit-xml-declaration="yes" method="text" encoding="utf-8"/>
   <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
@@ -93,23 +93,23 @@
     be used on the command line.
   -->
   <xsl:template match="/*">
-      <xsl:choose>
-        <xsl:when test="$debug">
-          <xsl:variable name="json-tree">
-            <json:object>
-              <xsl:copy-of select="if (not($use-rayfish)) then json:create-node(., false()) else json:create-simple-node(.)"/>
-            </json:object>
-          </xsl:variable>
-
-          <debug>
-            <xsl:copy-of select="$json-tree"/>
-          </debug>
-          <xsl:apply-templates select="$json-tree" mode="json"/>
-        </xsl:when>
-        <xsl:otherwise>
-          <xsl:value-of select="json:generate(.)"/>
-        </xsl:otherwise>
-      </xsl:choose>
+    <xsl:choose>
+      <xsl:when test="$debug">
+        <xsl:variable name="json-tree">
+          <json:object>
+            <xsl:copy-of select="if (not($use-rayfish)) then json:create-node(., false()) else json:create-simple-node(.)"/>
+          </json:object>
+        </xsl:variable>
+
+        <debug>
+          <xsl:copy-of select="$json-tree"/>
+        </debug>
+        <xsl:apply-templates select="$json-tree" mode="json"/>
+      </xsl:when>
+      <xsl:otherwise>
+        <xsl:value-of select="json:generate(.)"/>
+      </xsl:otherwise>
+    </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:template>
 
   <!--
@@ -176,6 +176,7 @@
       <xsl:when test="$in-array">
         <json:array-value>
           <json:value>
+            <xsl:copy-of select="$node/@json:force-array" />
             <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-children($node)"/>
           </json:value>
         </json:array-value>
@@ -184,6 +185,7 @@
         <json:member>
           <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-string($node)"/>
           <json:value>
+            <xsl:copy-of select="$node/@json:force-string" />
             <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-children($node)"/>
           </json:value>
         </json:member>
@@ -196,7 +198,7 @@
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="exists($node/child::text()) and count($node/child::node()) eq 1">
         <xsl:choose>
-          <xsl:when test="(count($node/namespace::*) gt 0 and $use-namespaces) or count($node/@*[not(../@json:force-array) or count(.|../@json:force-array)=2]) gt 0">
+          <xsl:when test="(count($node/namespace::*) gt 0 and $use-namespaces) or count($node/@*[(not(../@json:force-array) or count(.|../@json:force-array)=2) and (not(../@json:force-string) or count(.|../@json:force-string)=2)]) gt 0">
             <json:object>
               <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-namespaces($node)"/>
               <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-attributes($node)"/>
@@ -218,7 +220,7 @@
               <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-namespaces($node)"/>
               <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-attributes($node)"/>
               <json:member>
-                <json:name>$</json:name>
+                <json:name>$d</json:name>
                 <json:value>
                   <xsl:copy-of select="json:create-mixed-array($node)"/>
                 </json:value>
@@ -313,7 +315,7 @@
 
   <xsl:function name="json:create-attributes" as="node()*">
     <xsl:param name="node" as="node()"/>
-    <xsl:for-each select="$node/@*[not(../@json:force-array) or count(.|../@json:force-array)=2]">
+    <xsl:for-each select="$node/@*[(not(../@json:force-array) or count(.|../@json:force-array)=2)]">
       <json:member>
         <json:name><xsl:if test="$use-badgerfish or $use-rabbitfish">@</xsl:if><xsl:value-of select="if($use-namespaces) then name() else local-name()"/></json:name>
         <json:value><xsl:value-of select="."/></json:value>
@@ -362,7 +364,7 @@
     <xsl:variable name="members"><xsl:apply-templates mode="json"/></xsl:variable>
     <parameter>
       <xsl:text/>{<xsl:text/>
-        <xsl:value-of select="string-join($members/member,',')"/>
+      <xsl:value-of select="string-join($members/member,',')"/>
       <xsl:text/>}<xsl:text/>
     </parameter>
   </xsl:template>
@@ -410,7 +412,7 @@
                * The value is not a valid JSON number (i.e. '01', '+1', '1.', and '.5' are not valid JSON numbers.)
                * The value does not equal the any of the following strings: 'false', 'true', 'null'.
           -->
-          <xsl:when test="normalize-space(.) ne . or not((string(.) castable as xs:integer  and not(starts-with(string(.),'+')) and not(starts-with(string(.),'0') and not(. = '0'))) or (string(.) castable as xs:decimal  and not(starts-with(string(.),'+')) and not(starts-with(.,'-.')) and not(starts-with(.,'.')) and not(starts-with(.,'-0') and not(starts-with(.,'-0.'))) and not(ends-with(.,'.')) and not(starts-with(.,'0') and not(starts-with(.,'0.'))) )) and not(. = 'false') and not(. = 'true') and not(. = 'null')">
+          <xsl:when test="./@json:force-string eq 'true' or ((normalize-space(.) ne . or not((string(.) castable as xs:integer  and not(starts-with(string(.),'+')) and not(starts-with(string(.),'0') and not(. = '0'))) or (string(.) castable as xs:decimal  and not(starts-with(string(.),'+')) and not(starts-with(.,'-.')) and not(starts-with(.,'.')) and not(starts-with(.,'-0') and not(starts-with(.,'-0.'))) and not(ends-with(.,'.')) and not(starts-with(.,'0') and not(starts-with(.,'0.'))) )) and not(. = 'false') and not(. = 'true') and not(. = 'null')))">
             <xsl:text/>"<xsl:value-of select="json:encode-string(.)"/>"<xsl:text/>
           </xsl:when>
           <xsl:otherwise>
@@ -419,7 +421,13 @@
         </xsl:choose>
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise>
-        <xsl:text/>null<xsl:text/>
+        <xsl:choose>
+          <xsl:when test="./@json:force-array eq 'true'">
+          </xsl:when>
+          <xsl:otherwise>
+            <xsl:text/>null<xsl:text/>
+          </xsl:otherwise>
+        </xsl:choose>
       </xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:template>
@@ -433,7 +441,7 @@
       <xsl:apply-templates mode="json"/>
     </xsl:variable>
     <xsl:text/>[<xsl:text/>
-      <xsl:value-of select="string-join($values/value,',')"/>
+    <xsl:value-of select="string-join($values/value[node()],',')"/>
     <xsl:text/>]<xsl:text/>
   </xsl:template>
 </xsl:stylesheet>
diff --git a/input/tests/general.xml b/input/tests/general.xml
index 08a2a93..62424b8 100755
--- a/input/tests/general.xml
+++ b/input/tests/general.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,36 @@
 		<param name="use-namespaces">false</param>
 	</params>
 
+	<test id="force-string">
+			<input>
+				<root>
+					<element json:force-string="true">1234</element>
+				</root>
+			</input>
+			<output>
+				<json:object>
+					<json:member>
+						<json:name/>
+						<json:value>
+							<json:object>
+								<json:member>
+									<json:name>root</json:name>
+									<json:value>
+										<json:object>
+											<json:member>
+												<json:name>element</json:name>
+												<json:value json:force-string="true">1234</json:value>
+											</json:member>
+										</json:object>
+									</json:value>
+								</json:member>
+							</json:object>
+						</json:value>
+					</json:member>
+				</json:object>			
+			</output>
+	</test>
+
 	<test id="force-array">
 		<input>
 			<root>